Southampton will be looking to continue their impressive form

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Southampton will be looking to continue their impressive form in the Premier League when they welcome relegation-threatened Norwich City to St Mary’s on Friday night. The Saints are currently 10th in the table, one point behind ninth-placed Brighton & Hove Albion, while Norwich are back at the bottom, now five points from the safety of 17th position.

Southampton’s brilliant resurgence under manager Ralph Hasenhüttl sees him emerging as a contender for February’s Premier League (PL) ‘Manager of the Month’ after a 2-0 win at home to Everton completed a fourth run of four PL matches without defeat this season (W2, D2). Hasenhüttl’s next challenge is to extend that to five PL games without loss, something his club are yet to achieve in 2021/22.

The ‘Saints’ now sit closer to the top six than the relegation zone points-wise after netting their largest 25-game points haul since 2015/16, boasting an impressive eight different goalscorers across their last six PL matches. Whilst that will warm the heart of Hasenhüttl, a former striker himself, their first clean sheet in 13 PL fixtures last time out suggests that they continue to discover new areas of strength.

Perhaps the only surprise about Norwich’s back-to-back defeats to Manchester City (0-4) and Liverpool (1-3) over the last fortnight, which keeps them bottom of the table, was becoming just the third visiting side to open the scoring at Anfield this PL season. That said, with Norwich holding fewer points (17) at this stage of the season than during the last three in which they were relegated from the top flight, more misery could yet be just around the corner.

The ‘Canaries’ have drawn just one of their last 11 PL matches (W2, D1, L8), and the history of manager Dean Smith, who has never played out a draw with either Southampton (W3, L5) or Ralph Hasenhüttl (W2, L4), suggests that one side will be walking away the victor again here.

Date: 25/02/2022
Time: 23:00
Venue: St. Mary’s Stadium (Southampton)
Pick for this match:
“1” – @ 1.58 ( BETWINNER )